Cubs after Anibal Sanchez? (Signs with Tiger 5/$80mil)

[Sammy Sofa]

And you will get it. I will duck when I say this......but just be patient. They will spend beautifully when the time is right. It will be the blend of home grown guys and the right free agents.

 

Time goes fast. Especially when you get past age 30. It won't be long, as 2015 will be here before you know it.

 

Anibal Sanchez is the "right kind of free agent" when you're a big market team that needs to get better and needs starting pitcher and he's available and it won't cause you any prospects or young players.

 

Which is why the front office has offered Sanchez the best deal on the market. They've already agreed to a big concession that no other team has been so far willing to do.

 

I would love nothing more than for the FO to pull this off and make me look like an even bigger jackass than usual.

[Rob]

 

So what? I have absolutely no clue what you've ever said about any deal ever.

 

That's because I don't act like a petulant child every single time the Cubs are outbid. The Adam Dunn thread was a classic example.

 

No, it's because I don't care. Your ideas of what is a good deal or not means absolutely nothing.

 

It's just yet another in an ever growing list of near-misses. Good intentions aren't enough.

 

1.) It's not a near miss. Not yet anyways.

 

2.) If you camped outside the front office and whined like you do around here, the Cubs would be floating a $300 mil payroll just to shut you up.

 

That would be terrible, wouldn't it? Because big spending is bad for some reason.

 

I don't want the Cubs to spend just to spend and get themselves into a hole; I want them to spend because they CAN spend because they SHOULD be able to spend. How is this possibly something you don't want as well? Like I said, if the Cubs are choosing not to spend significantly more but can, that's unfortunate. If they can't spend significantly more, that's even worse. Neither is something that anyone would want.

 

First off, sorry about my previous post. I got frustrated and was a bit rude. By the time I thought to edit it, people had responded.

 

I want the Cubs to spend. I've never implied anything other than that. But we don't have a new TV deal. We don't have a giant advertising board. The simple fact is that we can't spend like the Dodgers. Not yet anyways.

 

Given our current team and the market, there are players that make sense. But we aren't talking about the playoffs without some very good luck.

 

I've been pretty vocal supporting some big contracts. Darvish and some slight support for Pujols last offseason. Upton, Bourn, Sanchez this year. But the simple fact remains that the window is more 2014 and on. There will be opportunities to overpay every year. To justify getting guys now, the deals need to be reasonable — both in contract terms and risk.

[XZero771679666304]

Sanchez isn't flashy, but he's been a solid producer recently.

[Sammy Sofa]

ok but what about anibal sanchez

 

He's 28, doesn't walk very many people, strikes out more than average and gets a decent amount of ground balls.

 

is 7.7/9 really better than average? i like that he won't cost anything other than money, and considering we don't owe anyone any money, it won't really hurt when his arm falls off and we're paying him 15 mil a year to rehab or pitch a 6th inning sometimes. he's just a boring dude to me.

 

He is pretty boring, but the Cubs are at a point where "good boring" can help a LOT.

[UMFan83]

This is silly. Sanchez would be a nice signing, even if its a little more than I would gave him, but he's not a player who is going to make or break whether we contend next year (obviously), nor is his not signing going to ruin our rebuilding plans for the future.

 

I know it sucks to be once again told the cubs have a done deal with someone only to have the rug pulled out from under us, but welcome to the world of twitter. If there's anything to learn its to stop taking anything on twitter as gospel.

[Sammy Sofa]

There will be opportunities to overpay every year.

 

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available.

[imb]

The league average K/9 for SP is 7.1.

 

so essentially the best thing we can say about anibal sanchez is that he'll be exceptionally average for us for five years as long as his arm doesn't fall off (id be interested to see what his velocity was during his detroit starts) and if he does get hurt, who cares, we've got the money. I guess I'm ok with 5/75 but im not going to [expletive] my pants about the FO if he chooses to re-sign with a world series team (especially considering it still appears we're leading for him)

[Rob]

There will be opportunities to overpay every year.

 

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available.

 

Which is why they need to get one of Sanchez/Jackson or extend Garza. Or trade for somebody about to get expensive.

 

If they don't do something, I'll be out front with you waving my pitchfork. But let's wait to see how it plays out before getting all worked up, okay?

[XZero771679666304]

There will be opportunities to overpay every year.

 

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available.

 

I think when the first haymakers get thrown, they're going to be thrown via trade (like Price next year). Guys like Sanchez and/or Jackson would be building to that point.

 

Just my opinion.

[nilodnayr]

Would it be too much to ask for Sanchez to actually sign with Detroit before we kick off the pages of hand-wringing about the Cubs not being able to close a deal with a FA target?

 

I wouldn't mind the Tigers signing Sanchez if it lead to them trading Porcello to us.

 

I'd much rather have Sanchez than Porcello.

 

Well duh, but he wouldn't be a bad consolation prize and while he's about a WAR worse of a player, he'd leave $ for other signings (although money should be no object, right guys).

[Sammy Sofa]

There will be opportunities to overpay every year.

 

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available.

 

Which is why they need to get one of Sanchez/Jackson or extend Garza. Or trade for somebody about to get expensive.

 

If they don't do something, I'll be out front with you waving my pitchfork. But let's wait to see how it plays out before getting all worked up, okay?

 

I'm not going to have a meltdown over the Cubs being bad because that's what I've known most of my life. This is just me being resigned to disappointment thus far because so far my impression of the post-sale, post-hiring of good FO is pretty far from what I had hoped/expected. They haven't done anything I wasn't expecting them to do while also doing a whole lot more.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Sammy Sofa

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I don't know if I'd call Sanchez boring. He's a little above average in basically everything, which adds up to a pretty good pitcher.

[Sammy Sofa]

There will be opportunities to overpay every year.

 

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available.

 

I think when the first haymakers get thrown, they're going to be thrown via trade (like Price next year). Guys like Sanchez and/or Jackson would be building to that point.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Well, yeah; I'm not calling for one or the other. I don't want dual fronts; I want the Triforce.

[Little Slide Rooter]

This is silly. Sanchez would be a nice signing, even if its a little more than I would gave him, but he's not a player who is going to make or break whether we contend next year (obviously), nor is his not signing going to ruin our rebuilding plans for the future.

 

.

 

Agreed.Sanchez would certainly make us a better team, but not enough to drown in SoCo over. A big part of what made the Delgado and Haren non-acquisitions seem so exciting was the price that we'd seemingly gotten them for. With Sanchez, we'd have gotten a quality player at market value. If we sign him, I'll be happy. If not, I'll be a bit bummed due to the let down, but at least being bummed about losing out on Sanchez is less pathetic than being bummed about missing out on Jason Grilli.

[hawkeyecub]

Kaplan:

Trying to text/work the phones while hosting 3 hr radio show. Hearing Cubs are in play on P Mike Adams (Rangers) Carlos Villanueva (Tor)

[SouthSideRyan]

Would it be too much to ask for Sanchez to actually sign with Detroit before we kick off the pages of hand-wringing about the Cubs not being able to close a deal with a FA target?

 

I wouldn't mind the Tigers signing Sanchez if it lead to them trading Porcello to us.

 

I'd much rather have Sanchez than Porcello.

 

You're only saying that because Rick Porcello sucks.

[XZero771679666304]

Would it be too much to ask for Sanchez to actually sign with Detroit before we kick off the pages of hand-wringing about the Cubs not being able to close a deal with a FA target?

 

I wouldn't mind the Tigers signing Sanchez if it lead to them trading Porcello to us.

 

I'd much rather have Sanchez than Porcello.

 

You're only saying that because Rick Porcello sucks.

 

Because Sanchez is pretty good and Porcello isn't.

[Guest]

The league average K/9 for SP is 7.1.

 

so essentially the best thing we can say about anibal sanchez is that he'll be exceptionally average for us for five years as long as his arm doesn't fall off (id be interested to see what his velocity was during his detroit starts) and if he does get hurt, who cares, we've got the money. I guess I'm ok with 5/75 but im not going to [expletive] my pants about the FO if he chooses to re-sign with a world series team (especially considering it still appears we're leading for him)

 

He's been a 4 WAR pitcher for 3 years. Over the last 3 seasons, he has been worth a total of 2.2 WAR less than Greinke.

 

He's not average, and he's definitely not exceptional at being average.

[Guest]

Using FIP, here's the best 10 Cubs SP of the last decade alongside Sanchez's last 3 seasons:

 

Year  Name       FIP
2003  Prior      2.47
2011  Garza      2.95
2010  Sanchez    3.32 <--
2011  Sanchez    3.35 <--
2008  Dempster   3.41
2003  Zambrano   3.47
2012  Sanchez    3.53 <--
2012  Samardzija 3.55
2004  Zambrano   3.57
2009  Zambrano   3.61
2009  Lilly      3.65
2005  Zambrano   3.70
2003  Wood       3.71

[Guest]

UPDATE 32 (9:19pm CT): I’m listening to Kap on WGN Sports Night now, and Kap’s talking to Tony Paul, a Detroit writer, who says he’s not surprised the Tigers are getting the final chance to match the Cubs because Sanchez loved his time in Detroit. He’s surprised that the Tigers are willing to talk about 5/$75 million, but he doesn’t know how high the Tigers are willing to go. He didn’t think the Tigers were willing to go any higher than four years and $60 million.

 

UPDATE 33 (9:25pm CT): Tony says he doesn’t expect anything tonight. It could come down to Tigers blinking and ponying up extra cash, or Sanchez blinking and going for the money with the Cubs. I’m getting the sense that he really doesn’t think the Tigers are going to outbid the Cubs on Sanchez … but that doesn’t mean the Cubs will get him.

 

 

Last two updates from Bleacher Nation

 

http://www.bleachernation.com/2012/12/13/holy-potential-squeal-cubs-finalizing-deal-for-anibal-sanchez/

[Rob]

Using FIP, here's the best 10 Cubs SP of the last decade alongside Sanchez's last 3 seasons:

 

Year  Name       FIP
2003  Prior      2.47
2011  Garza      2.95
2010  Sanchez    3.32 <--
2011  Sanchez    3.35 <--
2008  Dempster   3.41
2003  Zambrano   3.47
2012  Sanchez    3.53 <--
2012  Samardzija 3.55
2004  Zambrano   3.57
2009  Zambrano   3.61
2009  Lilly      3.65
2005  Zambrano   3.70
2003  Wood       3.71

 

Jesus that's depressing.

[Butterscup1679666578]

wait is imb meatballin right now? im surprised, actually.

[Sammy Sofa]

Using FIP, here's the best 10 Cubs SP of the last decade alongside Sanchez's last 3 seasons:

 

Year  Name       FIP
2003  Prior      2.47
2011  Garza      2.95
2010  Sanchez    3.32 <--
2011  Sanchez    3.35 <--
2008  Dempster   3.41
2003  Zambrano   3.47
2012  Sanchez    3.53 <--
2012  Samardzija 3.55
2004  Zambrano   3.57
2009  Zambrano   3.61
2009  Lilly      3.65
2005  Zambrano   3.70
2003  Wood       3.71

 

Jesus that's depressing.

 

Very.

[Butterscup1679666578]

meatheadin'?

[Rob]

Seriously. Baker and Feldman have a decent chance to crack that top 10.